Over the past few years, the number of new services and features offered over enhanced telephone networks has grown. These enhanced telephone networks are known as "Advanced Intelligent Networks" (AINs). Telephony control networks conforming to AIN architecture contain intelligent subsystems for controlling switched traffic and user services such as call waiting, call forwarding, voice announcements, voice response, keyboard response, etc.. These intelligent subsystems, called "Intelligent Peripherals" (IP), are configured for specific regional calling services.
Multi-processor systems used as an AIN system are disclosed in the patent application Ser. No. 08/792,018 by Deborah L. Acker and Thomas E. Creamer and assigned to International Business Machines (IBM) and is incorporated herein by reference.
Accounting and billing for customized telephony services running on an IP requires the assembly of raw billing information, such as, the length of the call, type of service, time of day, etc. that must be communicated to a billing provider. Most billing services such as Bellcore, have specialized formats for example the Bellcore Automatic Message Accounting Format (BAF), to which the raw billing data must be made compatible. Typically the specific data format requirements for these billing service providers are accomplished using dedicated custom software code that converts the raw source billing data (the raw data format) to a specified data target (the billing service data format).
In a telephony billing system where the raw billing data (e.g., source data) can change with the type, brand or even versions of IP, the dedicated custom software code that converts the raw data must be revised. In addition, in telephony billing systems where billing service data format changes (e.g., target data), the dedicated custom software must be revised in this instance as well. Therefore, a need exists for converting the raw source billing data format into the desired target data without having to modify the dedicated custom software code which converts the data.